Understanding The Fundamentals of Project Management

MAIN BODY

PART A

1. a) Importance of the various iron triangle parameters in setting the Overall Project objectives

Iron triangle are the basic factor that are accounted for during planning and delivery of any project. three factors of iron triangle are well named as Scope, Schedule and Cost. There are many importance which are brought by the different aspect of the iron triangle to the project manager in conducting the different project as project triangle used to cover up almost all the aspect of the project management (Bronte-Stewart, 2015). Some of the importance which are brought by iron triangle are as follows:

Scope:

Scope refer to the total amount of the work which need to be done in the organization to deliver the project. This includes roles and responsibility which has to be performed by the different member in the team to deliver the project.

Efficiency of the work:

As all the project manger used to have the idea about the amount of the work which has to be complete to deliver the project it always improves the efficiency of the project. The biggest reason to support the same is that these element of the it used to reduce the duplicate of the work which eventually help the company in saving the amount of the resources which has been invested in the project. This eventually help the company in improving the efficiency of the project as there is a optimum utilization of all the resources at the time of completing the project. On the basis of the same the project manager used to set more specific objectives.

Cost:

Cost refer to the amount of the resources and the time which will be consumed by the organization to deliver the project. Importance of cost for the project manager.

Quality management:

It is one of the biggest importance which used to be brought by the Iron intangibility to the project manager. As the quality of any project is always measure on some basis such as value of the cost, efficiency and durability (Liu and et.al., 2016). As Iron triangle used to identify the cost under which the project need to be complete it help the project manager in keeping the close eye on the cost at the time of setting the project objective in the organization.

Schedule:

Schedule factor is the factor which used to estimate the time which has been allocated to the team to complete the project and deliver the same on time.

Clarity of thought:

As all the work in the project development is not done by the manager itself, they used to delegate the some sort of the work to the other member in the team. Scheduling aspect of the iron triangle helps the project manager to understand the workforce which will require for completing the project. On the basis of the scheduling aspect of iron triangle the project manager used to delegate the different responsibility to the other member in the organization to complete the task on the time. This eventually help the project manager in keeping the clarity of the thought in the organization and among the different team member in the organization.

2. Planning and cost

a. Activities and network diagram

Related Article:- Quality Aspects Of  Project Management

Table 1: Input for GANTT chart

 Network diagram is given above in which critical path is given. Critical path refers to the activities that cannot be delayed in terms of performance. It also refers to the longest time period for which the project will be carried out. Critical path for the current project is 2+6+11+13+16+18 all other activities will be covered while performing this task. 23 weeks or 201 days will be required to complete the project. Thus, it can be said that within 6 months this project can be completed. Float is the one of the most important concept of the project management because it indicates the duration by which project activity can be delayed. In the project management there are always some activities which need to be performed and completed on time. On other hand, there are few tasks that can be delayed by few hours and days and this will not lead to elevation in cost of the project. Thus, scheduling of the tasks is done in such a way that benefit of extra time can be taken. It can be seen from the table given above that slack of 21 weeks is available in case of project initiation stage and 17^th and 18^th activity which are Handover and Train TTF engineers in Automation process and Product production and Project Close out. In both these tasks slack of 3.2 weeks and 45 days is available. Thus, these tasks can be delayed but if same thing is done in case of other tasks then in that situation project cost will increase at rapid pace.

3. Managing progress and spending

Table 2: Total profit on bonus

It is expected that expenses will remain in control and due to this reason bonus of $11100000 will be earned. Target value of the project is 58,500,000 and actual expenditure made is 48,500,000. Hence, total gain made on this side is $10,000,000. Overall, gain made on bonus and surplus amount is equal to $21,100,000.

4. Earned value analysis

Earning value analysis is that method which is allowed the manager to measure the amount of work that is actually perform on the project in order to analyse the amount of cost and schedule report. This also shows that whether the project is go in better direction or not (Chen, Chen and Lin, 2016). From the above, it has been calculated that the variance is calculated by subtracting the actual amount with the standards. Further, there are many values which will comes in negative that means there is a need to make proper cost control and it can be done only when the project manager uses advance techniques. Further, it is also analysed that the project manager also incur extra cost and it must be control such that in order to complete the task D, project manager allocated only 3.8 million but unfortunately, they spend 4.08 so the difference arises i.e. 3.04. Therefore, it is clear that there is a need to make proper measure in order to control the cost as well.

On the other side, it is also analysed that Cost performance index is another ration which measure the financial effectiveness of the project such that it is the term which is calculated by dividing the cost of work performed by the actual cost of the work performed. Therefore, project initiation is the first task and its value if 1 which means that there is a good result of the project (Eirgas and et.al, 2019). on the other side, it is also analysed that task A, B, C , E, F are also nearby 1 which means that the project is good with this allocated budget and as a result, it will be more beneficial to generate best results as per required. On the other side, as per the task, D , G , H are the task which is not nearby 1 that means these task may be over budget or under budget. Therefore, it is clearly realized that when the CPI is less than 1 then the project is over budget and there are some task which are over budget and there is a need to take control on these by applying effective techniques.

In addition to this, SPI is the schedule performance index which means that it is very powerful measure of the amount of work which is actually required in order to complete the project. Therefore, it is the part of the earned value management techniques. Therefore, as per the above mention table, it is analysed that the overall task which included form PI to H, all are not nearby 1 and these are less than 1 that clearly states that the team is accomplishing the less work from the planned work. Therefore, it is analysed that if the team is achieve the work i.e. SPI > 1.0 then all the con- critical path activities are performed. Though there is a variance, which state that for every given task, the team is required around 0.88 hours so that they will be easily attain the defined aim and objectives (Bryde, Unterhitzenberger and Joby, 2018). From the Gantt chart it is clear that the project is completed by 14 February but it takes more time to complete the project and it is so because there is a negative deviation and in order to complete the same, it is necessary for the project manager to apply effective techniques so that it will not be easily affect the project in negative way. Thus, it is clear that the project manager, should take better and corrective actions in order to minimize the cost incurred.

PART B

Reflection

Module has helped me in improving variety of the skill and also gaining the knowledge. As module has asked me to drive myself to do many new and the challenging activities which was not performed by me in the past. As a result it has helped me in improving the personal as well as professional skill. At the same time there were many challenges which was faced by me at the time of completing the module.

Interpretation of the Data:

This was the issue which was faced by me and my team on the regular basis. As module has asked us to go through the good amount of the financial data and interpret the same to carry out the outcome of the Module. It was very difficult to interpret the data in the module as the data which need to be gather is to be gathered with the help of the proper understanding of the module. As all the student were having the different opinion in the team it was getting difficult for the team to interpret the data. To overcome the same issue the team has always hear the issue and the concern of all the student. On the basis of the same the best decision used to take place in the team regarding the interpretation of the data.

Reliability of the outcome:

This is one of the biggest challenge which was faced by me and my team. As it was always difficult for us to understand the reliability of the outcome which has been found by us, as it was difficult to find out the proper measure to check out the reliability of theoutcome which has been ascertain by the team. As it is very important to check the reliability of data before building the further data on the basis of the same it was always proving difficult for us to find out the proper measure to check the reliability. At that time the senior professor and the tutor has helped us to check the reliability of the data as we used to cross check the data with them and try to implement the different feedback from there side in the data.

Coordinating:

with the other member in the team was another big issue which was faced by me. As in the team all the member was given the separate roles and duties which need to be followed by them to carry out the outcome of the module. It was getting difficult for me to communicate and coordinate with them. To overcome the same issue we have taken the help of the different communication tool which has helped us in improving the efficiency as well as coordination in the team.

Module has also helped me in developing variety of the personal development skill in mine. As with the help of the module I am able to develop my communication skill as module has asked me to communicate with the variety of the authority and team member to find out the best outcome (González, Coronado and Casas, 2016). Module has helped me in developing my sourcing skill as well. As to interpret the different data and find out the best outcome out of the assessment it has always asked me to source the variety of the information internal and external which has helped me in developing my interpretation skill. Another skill of mine which has seen a good amount of the progress is interpretation skill as module has asked me to interpret huge amount of data.

After conducting the module and completing the assessment it has been understood from my side that the good project manager is always require to have a good communication skill. As they are the one who used to interact with all the team member on regular basis and try to fix out the different concern which are faced by the team. Also another characteristic of good project manager is that all the project manager used to have a good leadership and team building skill as it is the responsibility of the project manager to build the good working environment in which all the team member can work together (Kariuki, 2015). Project manager also used to have the good and the clear vision about the future and on the basis of the same different decision are taken in the organization. Project manager are also good decision maker as they are the one who is having the responsibility to take the different decision in the organization.

CONCLUSION

By summing up above report it has been concluded that for AF Plc project, different iron triangle parameter are used such that cost, schedule, scope that helps the firm to manage the work as per needed and they all are interrelated to each other, further, report also concluded that there are different risk which are identified which the project manager is actually face with such that Elevation in cost of the project, Not receiving proper support from client employees, Delay in project etc. further, report also provide the Gantt chart and network diagram in order to make sure that the all the critical task are identified such that the project required 201 days in order to complete the project. Lastly, report also concluded that CPI of the project is almost nearby 1 that means the project is in progress and on the other side, SPI is negative which means that there is a need to minimize the cost and take initiatives in order to control the cost.

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